Program Notes | Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Louise Farrenc
Born: May 31, 1804 in Paris, France
Died: September 15, 1875 in Paris, France
Composed: 1834
World Premiere: Undocumented
Duration: 8 minutes
Instrumentation: woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings

If asked to name female composers from the Romantic era, music-lovers might be able to come up with Clara Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn. France’s Louise Farrenc arguably surpassed them both in the 19th century.

Farrenc came from a distinguished family of royal artists, including several female painters. Her brother was the sculptor, Auguste Dumont. Louise evidenced prodigious musical talent from childhood. By her early teens, she was already a keyboard virtuosa who had flourished as a student of Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. A budding composer, she matriculated at the Paris Conservatoire at age 15 to study composition with Anton Reicha, a contemporary and respected friend of Beethoven.

She married the flutist and music publisher Aristide Farrenc in 1821. He published most of her compositions and eventually steered her toward the rediscovery and publication of early keyboard music. She served as a piano professor at the Paris Conservatoire from 1842 to 1873, the only woman to hold such a prestigious position.

Farrenc is best known today for her chamber music and solo piano works. Her orchestral compositions are few: two Overtures (both from 1834) and three symphonies between 1841 and 1847. During her lifetime, her music was widely performed in France and elsewhere in Europe. Hector Berlioz—one of France’s most influential music critics in the 1830s—singled out her Overtures for high praise.

The First Overture opens with a slow introduction in E major before proceeding to a vigorous Allegro in E minor. It is a concert overture, that is, a free-standing symphonic movement not associated with a stage work or any extramusical idea. Farrenc’s music is firmly grounded in classical forms and clearly influenced by both Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Her musical language is consistent with early romanticism in Europe. Listeners who know the overtures of Carl Maria von Weber will note her secure control of form and imaginative use of woodwinds, strings, and especially timpani.

Farrenc shows a secure command of sonata form, and her handling of the orchestral ensemble is admirable. Her development section is reminiscent of some Italian opera overtures; early Verdi comes to mind. The harmonic journey is far-flung and convincing, with a pedal point in the timpani heralding the recapitulation. The Overture returns to E major for a resounding close.

All five of Farrenc’s orchestral works remained unpublished until the late 20th century. As this attractive overture attests, her compositions are well worth discovery and performance.

Frédéric Chopin
Born: March 1, 1810 in Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, Poland
Died: October 17, 1849 in Paris, France
Composed: 1829–30
World Premiere: March 17, 1830 in Warsaw; the composer was the soloist
Duration: 32 minutes
Instrumentation: woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, bass trombone, timpani, solo piano, and strings

Some composers undergo marked changes in their style and approach to their art in the course of a long career: Beethoven and Stravinsky are obvious examples. Others, like Brahms, seem to have burst forth fully formed, with a unique and personal musical language that is instantly identifiable as their own and remains consistent in early, middle, and late works.

Frédéric Chopin falls into the latter category. Hallmarks of his style appear in all his compositions. We are exceedingly unlikely to mistake Chopin's music for that of any of his contemporaries. His two piano concertos are the finest of his so-called "apprentice" works—both demonstrate his incomparable flair for solo display.

Chopin began work on the F minor concerto in autumn 1829. It was actually his first concerto, but was not published until 1836, three years after the publication of his Piano Concerto in E minor, Op.11. Consequently the F minor concerto bears a later opus number.

The relationship between orchestra and piano is different in Chopin from, for example, the conversational balance in a Mozart concerto. Chopin took Johann Nepomuk Hummel as his model, rather than Mozart. The F minor Concerto is more an accompanied solo than a concerted discussion. Everything is geared to highlight technical virtuosity, beautiful tone, and the expressive capability of the pianist. The mood of the music changes rapidly, showing every face that the composer has, from warrior to poet. But these transformations are never at the expense of continuity, and Chopin sustains a convincing forward drive in spite of his unconventional approach to sonata form. As Peter Gould observed:

“The development section of the F minor concerto is not a true development as understood by Beethoven. Chopin seldom argued. He was not naturally an intellectual, his greatest attribute being that of sensitivity, and in his development, he wrote what could be better described as a commentary on what had gone before.”

Chopin had a lifelong love of opera that exercised a powerful influence on his sense of melodic line and inimitable ornamentation. That influence is most readily perceived in his lyrical slow movements. The F minor concerto's central Andante (originally Adagio) was an expression of Chopin's love for a singer, Konstancja Gładkowska, during the last year he spent in Warsaw. He wrote to his friend Titus Woyciechowski in October 1829:

“To my misfortune, perhaps, I have found my ideal. I venerate her with all my soul. For six months now I have been dreaming of her every night and still I have not addressed a single word to her. It is thinking of her that I have composed the Adagio of my Concerto.”

Chopin remained very fond of performing this slow movement long after other women (notably Countess Delphine Potocka of Paris, the eventual dedicatee of the concerto) had replaced Konstancja in his affections. It is easy to understand why. With its lavish ornamentation and delicate embroidery, this movement blurs the distinction between melody and decoration, weaving a magical seductive spell.

Polish nationalism finds its way into the finale as a mazurka. This colorful movement incorporates a number of unexpectedly deft orchestral touches, such as col legno strings (striking the strings with the wood of the bow, rather than the horsehair) and a horn signal, that contribute to its energy. A virtuoso coda reminds us that the concerto, ultimately, belongs to the soloist.

Béla Bartók
Born: March 25, 1881 in Nagy Szent Miklós, Transylvania
Died: September 26, 1945 in New York City
Composed: in 1942 and 1943; revised in 1945
World Premiere: February 11, 1918 in Budapest; Emil Lichtenberg conducted
Duration: 36 minutes
Instrumentation: three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), three oboes (3rd doubling English horn), three clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, two harps, timpani, side drum, bass drum, tam-tam, cymbals, triangle, and strings

Bartók's 1943 Concerto for Orchestra is not a traditional concerto featuring one soloist. Rather, it celebrates the entire symphonic ensemble, allowing virtually every instrument its moment in the spotlight. This Concerto became the quintessential orchestral showpiece of the 20th century and remains a work with which symphony orchestras cut their teeth and prove their mettle. It is both the symphony that Bartók never composed and the ultimate concerto grosso for our time. In addition, the Concerto for Orchestra, like many of Bartók's late works, is written in a more diatonic, accessible language than his earlier music. Its roots lie in the peasant folk music of Hungary.

Foreign expatriate in a strange country
Early in 1940, unable to accept the political situation in his native Hungary and throughout war-torn Europe, Bartók emigrated to America. He found the strangeness of this foreign land daunting. His English was not strong. The noise of New York City, where he initially settled, proved irksome and disturbing. Plagued by exhaustion, overwork, and emotional stress, his health worsened. So did his financial situation. By spring 1942, he was quite ill with the leukemia that would claim his life three years later.

A welcome commission
Given such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Bartók expressed doubt to friends as to whether he would compose again. Even when his physical energy failed, he remained a vastly imaginative and energetic musician in spirit. The conductor Serge Koussevitzky visited him in May 1943 and requested a new piece for the Boston Symphony. Bartók threw himself into the new commission, which took shape rapidly that summer.

Perhaps because it was his first large composition in a while, ideas poured out of him. Knowing that Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony would play the first performance, he was inspired to write with superb orchestral players in mind, The Concerto's five movements distinguish it from a traditional four movement symphony, although there are some clear parallels in the overall structure. The five-movement organization is one that Bartók adopted frequently in his mature works. Generally, in such compositions, a weightier central (third) movement serves as a fulcrum to balancing outer movements, with the second and fourth somehow connected, and the first and last bearing some relationship to one another, as well as forming a frame for the whole. Music theorists call this method of formal organization an “arch form,” and the structure has become strongly associated with Bartók.

Noah’s Ark
Bartók's Concerto is filled with wondrous and exciting musical moments. A few warrant singling out, especially for live performance. The second movement, "Game of the Pairs” (“Giuoco delle coppie”), introduces the winds two by two, as if they were marching onto Noah's Ark. Emphasizing the difference in their respective timbres, he writes for the bassoons in parallel sixths, the oboes in thirds, the clarinets in sevenths, flutes in fifths, and muted trumpets in major seconds; after an intervening brass chorale, the restatement expands to triple woodwind. In each case, the melody is idiomatic to the character of the instrument, as if to express its personality. The movement is like a microcosmic guide to the orchestra. The side drum opens and concludes this remarkable “game,” ushering the parade of duets.

Sarcastic swipe at Shostakovich
Careful listeners may recognize that the musical material in the central “Elegia” grows out of the slow introduction to the first movement. In “Intermezzo interrotto,” the interruption consists of a vulgar quotation from Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony. Bartók found the Russian composer's theme absurd, and his ridicule of it in this movement is one of music's more raucous snipes at another composer. Bartók closes his Concerto with an energetic opening fanfare, including an elaborate fugue as the centerpiece of the brilliant finale.

CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music defines a concerto thus:

“Since the late 18th century, a composition for orchestra and a solo instrument … an essential feature of such works is the contrast between passages dominated by the soloist (usually requiring some display of virtuosity) and passages (called tutti) for the orchestra alone.”

What then, is a concerto for orchestra, if not a contradiction in terms, since there is no soloist? Later in the same entry, the dictionary elaborates:

“Some 20th-century composers (Hindemith, Piston, Bartók, Barber, and others) have written pieces under titles like concerto for orchestra. These often draw on elements of the baroque concerto, including the use of a group of soloists.”

In the case of Bartók's 1943 Concerto for Orchestra, the group of soloists amounts to the entire ensemble. The result is a celebration of that giant composite instrument, the orchestra.

Bartók was not the only important 20th-century composer to explore the capabilities of the large symphonic ensemble through this new genre. In addition to those listed in the dictionary article quoted above, other composers of significant Concertos for Orchestra included Witold Lutosławski, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, and Rodion Shchedrin. More recently, many prominent Americans have turned their hands to it, including Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky (whose Second Concerto for Orchestra won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005), Joan Tower, and Jennifer Higdon. The genre has evolved into a significant alternative to the traditional multi-movement symphony as a vessel for musical ideas.

Markus Stenz has held several high-profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and most recently Conductor-In-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for 11 years, conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janáček’s Jenůfa and Katya Kábanová and Eötvös’ Love and other Demons.

He made his opera debut in 1988 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and, following highly successful concert weeks with the Orchestra, last season he conducted a new production of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and returns in the next two seasons for Ariadne auf Naxos and Lohengrin. In 2018 Markus conducted Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and 2018 also saw the world premiere of György Kurtág’s Fin de partie at Teatro alla Scala Milan where, he conducted Strauss’ Elektra. This was followed by performances of Fin de partie for Dutch National Opera and its French premiere at Opéra National de Paris.

In 2023-24, Markus returned to Dutch National Opera to conduct Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, traveled to Hangzhou in China for Die Walküre, and conducted a special performance of György Kurtag’s Fin de partie in the composer’s hometown of Budapest before touring for performances in Hamburg and Cologne. He returned to Orchestre National de Lyon and, following a very successful debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mahler Symphony No. 2 in 2022, he returned for Bruckner Symphony No 7. In Italy, he conducts both Orchestra della Toscana and Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano, and further afield returns to the New Jersey Symphony and makes his debut with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. In Germany he will conduct programs with the MDR Sinfonieorchester, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, and the Staatskapelle Halle among others.

Recent symphonic highlights include his debut with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, multiple appearances with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and regular visits to three orchestras where he previously held positions: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln. Further, he conducted the RSO Vienna, the Dresdner Philharmonie, and the Staatskapelle Weimar.

While with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Markus received the prize for ‘The Best Concert Programme of the 2003-04 Season’ as well as initiating a number of youth and educational projects such as ‘Experiment Klassik,’ ‘3. Akt,’ and the concert live-recording project ‘GO live.’ His extensive discography includes many prize-winning recordings including the Gürzenich Orchestra’s complete cycle of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies with Symphony No. 5 receiving the German Record Critics’ Award; Strauss’ Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel both received unanimous critical acclaim, followed by an equally celebrated recording of Schönberg’s Gurrelieder released in 2015, receiving the Choral Award at the 2016 Gramophone Awards. Markus Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and the ‘Silberne Stimmgabel’ (Silver Tuning Fork) of the state of North Rhein/Westphalia.

A musician who has been praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir, Montreal), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the first prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, Montreal Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata.

Recital highlights have included his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Concert hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, recitals at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (the performance was livestreamed globally), the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and return performances at the Steinway Society in San Jose and Auditori de Barcelona. He has been in residence at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and Tippet Rise Art Center and had his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater.

Albert has been presented in recital by Festival Bach Montreal, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), and Matinée Musicale (Cincinnati, OH). He recently premiered Katherine Balch’s Musica Spolia with flutist Anthony Trionfo at the Morgan Library and Carnegie Hall. Recent recitals with Trionfo include the Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. Cano Smit is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD, Danse Russe.

During the 2023–24 season, Albert appeared in recital and chamber music performances at the Miami International Piano Festival, the Cosmos Club (Washington, DC), Friends of Music Concerts (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (Sarasota, FL), and Abbey Church Events (Lacey, WA), and also participated in the Kennedy Center’s inaugural chamber music ensemble of Young Concert Artists on Tour. He appeared as a soloist playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 with the Rochester Philharmonic and Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Waterbury Symphony and Gulfport Symphony, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with the Greenwich Symphony and Albany Symphony, and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra.

An advocate for new music, Albert has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lun Li, Zlatomir Fung, Kevin Zhu, Leonard Fu, and Lev Sivkov. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets, and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig.

In 2017, Albert was first prize winner at the Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, and a Finalist and CMIM Grant winner at the Concours Musical International de Montreal. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).

A polyglot who speaks five languages, Albert was born in Geneva, the son of a Dutch mother and Spanish father. He left home at age nine to join the Escolania de Montserrat choir school, where hours of rehearsal every day strongly affected his musical development. Albert recently completed an Artist Diploma and master’s degree with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. He also holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School with Ory Shihor and studied at Chetham’s School of Music with Marta Karbownicka and Graham Caskie. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and Ravinia Steans Institute. Albert currently resides in New York City.